Rigid Mounting Device for a Child Safety Seat with a hook connection

ABSTRACT

The present invention is a mounting device for a child safety seat. The child seat attaches to a motor vehicle seat through the use of mounting hooks attached to mounting brackets and mounting spikes that go through a set of receiver holes in the automobile seat. The mounting spikes connect the safety seat frame to the motor vehicle seat. The mounting spikes have spring-loaded securing latches that secure the child seat to the motor vehicle seat. The child seat will have a release mechanism that will quickly and easily release the mounting spikes from the seat to allow the child safety seat to be removed from the vehicle.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS (IF ANY)

None

STATEMENT AS TO RIGHTS TO INVENTIONS MADE UNDER FEDERALLY-SPONSOREDRESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT (IF ANY)

None

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is directed to a Rigid Mounting Device for a ChildSafety Seat, more particular to one that attaches directly to a seatwith a hooking bracket.

2. Background

Most states have laws that require children below a certain weight oryounger than a certain age be placed in an approved child safety seatwhile riding in a motor vehicle. This requirement has been in place forover twenty years.

Child seats that are available today are difficult to use and toproperly secure to the seat of the motor vehicle. The current systemsare cumbersome to use and install.

Recent safety studies have shown that the addition of a top tetherconnecting the child seat to the motor vehicle seat is a betterrestraining system than securing just the bottom of the seat only. Allseats being produced right now require that top tether is provided.

There needs to be a better mounting device to mount child safety seatsto motor vehicles seats, a way that is quick but provides a secure andsafe connection.

3. Prior Art

U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,493 by Fornasari, et al. and issued on Mar. 24,1998, is for a built-in baby seat for transport in vehicles. Itdiscloses a built-in baby seat including a retractable seat, which canbe made of fabric, leather, synthetic leather, plastic, or any othersimilar material. The seat includes a mounting bar that can be shaped asa semiarch, a semicircle, a semiquadrangle, a semirectangle orsemitriangle. The bar is made of iron, aluminum, plastic or any similarmaterial, and is covered with plastic foam and/or rubber, which is inturn covered with some finishing material (leather, fabric, syntheticleather, plastic, or the like).

U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,097 by Peck, et al. and issued on Feb. 10, 1998, isfor a retractor plate for integral child restraint seat. It discloses achild restraint assembly that is integrated into the backrest portion ofa passenger seat in motor vehicle.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,414 by Olsson, et al. and issued on Jul. 4, 1995,relates to a child seat. It discloses a seat for a vehicle comprising amain or “adult” seat incorporating an integrated child seat.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,756 by Dukatz, et al. and issued on Jul. 6, 1993, isfor an Integrated child seat for vehicle. It discloses a three-mode seatfor a motor vehicle cooperable with an adult seat belt assembly toprovide three modes of operation including an adult seat mode, a largechild booster seat mode, and a small child mode.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,199 by Vander Stel, et al. and issued on Mar. 31,1992, is for a built-in infant seat. It discloses a seating unit foraccommodating an adult in a seated position which has a child restraintseat convertible from a position stored within the back of the adultseat to a position for holding and restraining a child.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,026,118 by Vander Stel, et al. and issued on Jun. 25,1991, is for a Built-in infant's seat for vehicles. It discloses aseating unit for accommodating an adult in a seated position and havinga child restraint seat convertible from a position stored within theback of the adult seat to a position for holding and restraining achild.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,600 by Leblanc, et al. and issued on Jan. 22, 1991,is for a collapsible infant seat. It discloses a new and improvedcollapsible infant seat formed as part of a vehicle seat, the vehicleseat including a bench and an upright back, the collapsible seatincluding a seat portion connected at one end to the vehicle to bepivotable between an open position overlying the bench portion of thevehicle seat, and a closed position forming a lower part of the uprightseat back, a seat back extending upwardly from the rearward edge of theseat portion, a pivotable bracket including a padded child restraint, afastener for securing the seat in an open position and a harness forrestraining the child within the seat.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,936,627 by Guim and issued on Jun. 26, 1990, is for avehicle seat with built-in retractable child seat. The child seatincludes a seat member and a back member pivotally mounted to each otherand the main seat assembly includes a pivotally mounted platform cushionwhere the child seat is supported by a rail assembly that allows toslidably move back and forth.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,498 by Forlivio and issued on Apr. 3, 1990, is for achild restraint seat. It discloses a seat that includes dual childrestraints which are selectively moveable to an extended position toprovide either a restraint for an infant or small child, or a restraintfor a larger child, the seat back including a fixed portion providing aback support for an infant or child which is extended in surface areaupon retraction of one of the child restraint's to provide a comfortableback support for a larger child, the respective child restraints whenretracted into the seat back providing a comfortable back support for anadult.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,087 by Crisp and issued on Feb. 13, 1990, is for anautomobile seat with built in child seat.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,086 by Steward and issued on Feb. 13, 1990, is foran integral folding child restraint system. It discloses a childrestraint system which is an integral part of and folded into a landvehicle or aircraft adult seat.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,827 by Musgrove and issued on Sep. 6, 1988, is for astowable car seat for children. It discloses a seat assembly forvehicles such as automobiles or passenger trains that comprises achild-sized seat which is shiftable between an extended position for useatop an adult-sized chair, and a retracted position recessed within achamber of the adult chair when use of the latter is instead desired.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,573 by Simin, et al. and issued on Jul. 12, 1988, isfor a vehicle seat with built-in infant and toddler seat provisions.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,229 by Dorto and issued on Jun. 7, 1988, is for achild restraint seat. It discloses a child restraint seat that isdesigned for use with a conventional bench type vehicle seat. A pair offrame rods is rigidly mounted in a recess provided in the seat back of aconventional bench type vehicle seat. These rods extend parallel to theseat back and are rigidly connected to the bench type seat frame. OneU-shaped support bracket is attached to each rod. A padded U-shapedrestraint member has the free ends pivotally mounted in the U-shapedsupport brackets.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,455 by Bailey, et al. and issued on Sep. 1, 1987, isfor an infant seat for automobiles. It discloses an infant seat forautomobiles which includes a folding support hinged to a frame locatedin the bench seat or bucket seat backrest of an automobile and designedto support an infant or child when positioned in extended configuration.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,443 by Casale and issued on May 12, 1987, is for anautomobile convertible seat. It discloses an automobile seat thatincludes a head rest for use by an adult which can be converted to aninfant seat by pivoting a portion of the back rest forwardly andextending the infant or child seat from a storage compartment, andlowering the head rest which can be locked or secured to the child seatto serve as a restraint for the child.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,596,420 by Vaidya and issued on Jun. 24, 1986, is for aBuilt-in vehicle child's seat assembly. It discloses a child's seatassembly securable, preferably within the seat back of the backseat of avehicle.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,555,135 by Freeland and issued on Nov. 26, 1985,discloses a built-in child's safety seat for vehicles. The safety seatmay be conveniently stored within the horizontal sitting surface of apassenger seat when not in use. By a simple pulling motion, a child'ssafety seat is formed which provides more protection to the child andwhich is less prone to be misused.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,216 by Hassel, Sr. and issued on Sep. 10, 1985, isfor a convertible seat for vehicles. It discloses a convertible seat foruse by children in automobiles and other vehicles which is foldable andcovered within the usual adult sized seating of the vehicle providingthe usual appearance, and which is unfoldable and uncoverable to providea simply constructed children's safety seat, upon and within the adultseating.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,533,176 by Wyttenbach and issued on Aug. 6, 1985, is fora built-in automatic infant restraint seat. It discloses a combinationchild's seat and adult seat for use in a vehicle. The combinationcomprises a seat member with a frame and a contact portion secured tothe frame for receiving and contacting the body of a seated adult.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,402,548 by Mason and issued on Sep. 6, 1983, is forsafety seats for vehicles. It discloses a safety seat for a vehicle ofthe type comprising a shell forming a seat portion, a back portion andtwo side portions, which are covered by a fabric seat cover, and is madeadjustable in width by providing a plurality of filler strips which fitbetween the cover and the side portions of the shell so as to adjust theinterior width of the seat.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,230,366 by Ruda and issued on Oct. 28, 1980, is for anautomotive seat with built-in child restraint. It discloses anautomotive vehicle seat that has a portion of its back part or seat partwhich can be pivoted or slid into a position above the sitting surfaceof the seat part and in front of the leaning surface of the back part.This portion is U-shaped and constitutes a passive child restrainthaving a pair of parallel legs extending in the direction of travel anda front cross piece, all padded. When out of use the U-shaped restraintbar may be pushed back level with the front surface of the back part ofthe seat or the top surface of the seat part of the seat.

There is still room for improvement in the art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a mounting device for child safety seats. Thechild seat attaches to a motor vehicle seat through the use of hookingmeans attached to mounting brackets on the top and mounting spikes thatgo through a set of receiver holes in the automobile seat on the bottom.The mounting spikes rigidly connect the safety seat frame to the motorvehicle seat. The mounting spikes have securing latches that secure thechild seat to the motor vehicle seat. The child seat will have a releasemechanism that will release the mounting spikes from the seat.

The new invention will not require the securing of the child seat to themotor vehicle seat by use of seatbelts which can be troublesome to useand even when used properly, provide inadequate restraint for the childsafety seat.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Without restricting the full scope of this invention, the preferred formof this invention is illustrated in the following drawings:

FIG. 1 displays the safety seat frame attaching to the motor vehicleseat;

FIG. 2 displays the child seat attached to the frame;

FIG. 3 displays a vertical view of the safety seat frame;

FIG. 4 displays the safety seat frame being attached to the motorvehicle seat; and

FIG. 5 displays the securing latches going into the receiving holes;

FIG. 6 displays the securing latches securing the child seat the motorvehicle seat;

FIG. 7 displays the securing latches; and

FIG. 8 displays the mounting hooks embodiment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

There are a number of significant design features and improvementsincorporated within the invention.

The current invention is a child safety seat mounting device. The childseat 1 attaches to a motor vehicle seat 30 through the use of mountinghooks 125 connected to mounting brackets 126 and mounting spikes 15 thatgo through a set of receiver holes 12 in the automobile seat 10. Themounting spikes 15 connect the safety seat frame 25 to the motor vehicleseat 30. The mounting spikes 15 have securing latches 17 that secure thechild seat to the motor vehicle seat 30. The child seat 1 will have arelease mechanism 22 that will compress the securing latches 17 therebyreleasing the mounting spikes 15 from the motor vehicle seat 30.

FIG. 1 displays one embodiment of the safety seat frame 25 attaching tothe motor vehicle seat 30. The safety seat frame is the frame of a childseat 1. FIG. 2 displays a child seat 1 as it fits on the safety seatframe 25. While FIG. 3 displays a vertical view of the safety seatframe.

The safety seat frame 25 is rectangular in shape with a base supportrectangle 42 with two bottom support bars 40 at the bottom at the basesupport rectangle 42 with two arm support bars 45 that are slightlymidway up the base support rectangle 42. The arm support bars 45 and thebottom support bars 40 are at a slightly greater than 90 degree anglefrom the base support rectangle 42 and come out the front of the basesupport rectangle 42.

The mounting spikes 15 are circular in shape and come out the back ofthe base support rectangle 42. In the preferred embodiment there are twomounting spikes 15 evenly spaced on the bottom of the base supportrectangle 42 for securing the child seat 1 to the motor vehicle seat 30.There are two mounting hooks 136 evenly spaced on the top of the basesupport rectangle 42. The mounting hooks 136 hook downwards.

FIG. 8 displays the safety seat frame 25 being attached to the motorvehicle seat 30 using the mounting hooks 125. The safety seat frame 25comes down so the mounting hooks 125 fit onto the mounting brackets 126which are attached to the motor vehicle seat 30. The safety seat frame25 is then swung down so that the mounting spikes 15 fit into thecorresponding receiver holes 12. The receiver holes 12 have a diameterthat is slightly bigger than the mounting spikes 15. FIG. 5 shows themounting spikes 15 going into the receiver holes 12. The securinglatches 17 compress against the mounting spikes 15 allowing the mountingspikes 15 to go through the receiver holes 12. As shown in FIG. 6, thesecuring latches 17 secure the child seat 1 through the safety seatframe 25. The flat 19 of the securing latch 17 secures against the backof the motor vehicle seat 30 securely holding the child seat 1 in place.The mounting brackets 126 are u shaped and extend out from the surfaceof the motor vehicle seat 30. The mounting brackets 126 are made of astrong material such as metal like steel.

As shown in FIG. 7, the securing latches 17 are triangular in shape on apivot with a tension means such as a spring 51. The tension means 51apply force to the securing latch away from the mounting spike 15 in anopen position. The securing latch 17 will have a stop 53 that will keepthe securing latch 17 in the mounting spike 15.

To remove the child seat 1 from the motor vehicle seat 30, in thepreferred embodiment there is a release mechanism 22 attached to thesafety seat frame 25. By compressing the release mechanism 22 through ause of pulleys 68, cables 66 and levels will compress the securinglatches 17 allowing a user to easily remove the child seat 1 from themotor vehicle seat 30. The securing latches 17 can also be compressedmanually.

FIG. 4 displays an alternative embodiment where the safety seat frame 25being attached to the motor vehicle seat 30 without the mounting hooks125 but with only mounting spikes.

The safety seat frame 25 in the preferred embodiment would be composedof a structurally sound material and light weight material such asaluminum,

The current invention is an improvement over prior art as it is a systemand design that rigidly mounts the entire child safety seat includingthe upper part of the seat back to the vehicle seat. This is importantdue to the recently developed top tether that has been shown to be abetter restraint than securing just the bottom of the seat alone. Allseats being produced right now require that top tether; the currentinvention is the only invention that has a rigid mount that would alsomount the top of the seat without the need of the tether.

ADVANTAGES

Advantages of a rigid mounting device for a child safety seat:

-   -   1. Much faster mounting and dismounting.    -   2. much easier and less frustrating mounting and dismounting    -   3. much more safely and securely mounted    -   4. much less room for user variability in mounting    -   5. eliminates wear and tear on vehicle seat surfaces because        child safety seat is actually held off of the seat surface by        the rigid mounting system.

As to a further discussion of the manner of usage and operation of thepresent invention, the same should be apparent from the abovedescription. Accordingly, no further discussion relating to the mannerof usage and operation will be provided.

With respect to the above description, it is to be realized that theoptimum dimensional relationships for the parts of the invention, toinclude variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and mannerof operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obviousto one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to thoseillustrated in the drawings and described in the specification areintended to be encompassed by the present invention.

Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of theprinciples of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications andchanges will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is notdesired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operationshown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications andequivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of theinvention.

1. A device to secure a child safety seat comprising: a safety seatframe with mounting hooks and mounting spikes.
 2. The device as in claim1, wherein said mounting spikes extend perpendicular from said safetyseat frame.
 3. The device as in claim 1, wherein said mounting hooksconnect to a mounting bracket and said mounting spikes go throughreceiving holes in a vehicle seat.
 4. The device as in claim 1, whereinsaid mounting spikes have securing latches.
 5. The device as in claim 4,wherein said securing latches have tension means pushing out for saidmounting spike.
 6. The device as in claim 4, wherein said securinglatches compress while said mounting spikes go through said receivinghole and extend after going through said receiving holes to secure thesafety seat frame to the vehicle seat.
 7. The device as in claim 4,wherein said safety seat frame has a release mechanism to compress saidsecuring latches.
 8. The device as in claim 1, wherein said safety seatframe has a base support rectangular frame.
 9. The device as in claim 8,wherein said safety seat frame has a pair of bottom support barsextending from said base support rectangular frame.
 10. The device as inclaim 8, wherein said safety seat frame has a pair of arm support barsextending from said base support rectangular frame.
 11. The device as inclaim 4, wherein said safety seat frame has a release mechanism tocompress said securing latches and said release mechanism is attached tosaid securing latches through a cable where said cable runs through aplurality of pulleys.
 12. A device to secure a child safety seatcomprising: a safety seat frame with mounting hooks which connect tomounting brackets in a vehicle seat and mounting spikes where saidmounting spikes have securing latches and said mounting spikes gothrough receiving holes in a vehicle seat.
 13. The device as in claim12, wherein said mounting spikes extend perpendicular from said safetyseat frame.
 14. The device as in claim 12, wherein said securing latchescompress while said mounting spikes go through said receiving hole andextend after going through said receiving holes to secure the safetyseat frame to the vehicle seat.
 15. The device as in claim 12, whereinsaid safety seat frame has a release mechanism to compress said securinglatches.
 16. The device as in claim 12, wherein said safety seat framehas a base support rectangular frame.
 17. The device as in claim 16,wherein said safety seat frame has a pair of bottom support barsextending from said base support rectangular frame.
 18. The device as inclaim 16, wherein said safety seat frame has a pair of arm support barsextending from said base support rectangular frame.
 19. A device tosecure a child safety seat comprising: a safety seat frame with mountinghooks that attach to mounting brackets on a vehicle seat, mountingspikes extending perpendicular from said safety seat frame where saidmounting spikes have securing latches and said mounting spikes gothrough receiving holes in a vehicle seat, where said securing latchescompress while said mounting spikes go through said receiving hole andextend after going through said receiving holes to secure the safetyseat frame to the vehicle seat, where said safety seat frame has arelease mechanism to compress said securing latches where said safetyseat frame has a base support rectangular frame, where said safety seatframe has a pair of bottom support bars extending from said base supportrectangular frame, where said safety seat frame has a pair of armsupport bars extending from said base support rectangular frame.
 20. Thedevice as in claim 19, wherein said safety seat frame has a releasemechanism to compress said securing latches and said release mechanismis attached to said securing latches through a cable where said cableruns through a plurality of pulleys.